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1. The powder was deeper: When Shane McConkey built the first reverse camber / reverse sidecut Spatulas the idea was to keep you floating on-top of the snow, not down in it. This allowed for a huge progression in the speed and fury at which mountains could be crushed. But like all things in life, you don’t get something for nothing. Skinny skis don’t float, they sink allowing for deeper turns and more faceshots.

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2. It took skills: It use to take years on the hill to learn how to arc a turn with grace. Then in the early 1990’s parabolic skis hit the market and any monkey could jump on a pair of skis, push down in the middle and make the ski turn.

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3. Powder for days: To ski powder on skinny skis was not only difficult it was a demanding workout. Only a well conditioned skier could make lap after lap on a powder day. This meant less skiers and less tracks. Nowadays, it seems like powder days have turned more into a powder hour.

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4. Size Mattered: Back in the day you could get a pretty good idea of how good someone was by the length of their skis.  I would like to see some park thug jump on a pair of 240cm DH boards and make it look good.

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5. It was all about the skiing: It sometimes seems that skiing today is all about the EXTREME. Your not cool unless you huck the biggest cliff, tuck the backflip into a double or ski that no fall zone line. When everyone was on skinny skis it seemed to be more about the skiing. Sure there were times when people would get rad and send some monster cliff but that was not the focus. The enjoyment was in the skiing not the adrenaline rush.

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